Jase (Kings of Korruption MC Book 3) (20 page)

Ellen

I unlock the
door to my house and glare at Bryce as he hurries inside, heading
straight for his bedroom. I grit my teeth, ignoring the urge to go
down there and rip a strip off him for the shit he pulled
today.

Shortly after
one o’clock this afternoon, I’d received a phone call from the
school asking me to come in right away. Since I was at work, I had
to get someone to come in early to cover the rest of my shift, then
take the twenty-minute bus ride to the school. By the time I got
there, school was getting out for the day.

I’d walked
down the hall and found Bryce sitting in the office, looking
worried. I didn’t even get a chance to talk to him before the
principal had pulled us into her office, where she informed me that
Bryce had been caught fighting with another boy. The other kids
that had witnessed the fight all confirmed that Bryce was the
instigator. I’d looked at my son and been shocked by the angry and
distant look in his eyes as he refused to tell me what had
happened.

Thankfully,
the principal had been gracious, letting Bryce off with a warning,
but part of that warning was that next time Bryce got caught
fighting at school, he would be suspended for three days, without
question.

The entire way
home, I’d tried to talk to him and find out what had gone down, but
he kept saying that I wouldn’t understand. By the time we got here,
I’d reached my limit in patience. I check my watch and realize that
it’s later than I thought, and that Jase will be here any
minute.

This is the
second night this week that Jase has been over for supper, and to
get to know Bryce a little better. Bryce is still unsure about the
whole thing, but I think he’s slowly coming around. Jase has been
extremely understanding of Bryce, and how our relationship affects
him, never pushing himself on either one of us.

I move to the
kitchen and begin preparing dinner, trying to come up with some
sort of solution on how to deal with my son. I’m at a loss. As a
mother, I feel like a failure—like there’s something I should be
doing to fix this for him, but I have no idea what that something
is.

The doorbell
rings and I hurry down the hall, wiping my fingers on a dish towel.
I swing the door open and when my eyes land on Jase, all the
tension in my body fades. His perfect smile hits me, and I
practically throw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his
neck.

“
Hey, what’s wrong?”

I pull away,
motioning for him to come in. We move into the kitchen where I grab
him a beer and go back to cutting potatoes while I tell him what
had happened today. “I don’t even know what to say to him right
now. It’s like everything I do say pisses him off even more, and
sometimes it even feels like he hates me.”

Tears form in
my eyes as I think about what the hell I’m supposed to do about
this whole mess. Jase’s smile is gone.

“
I’m sorry,” I say, moving towards him and collapsing against
him. “You don’t want to hear about this.”

“
Yes, I do,” he states matter of factly, pressing a kiss to
the top of my head. “I was just thinking. I hate seeing you so
upset about this, and I hate that something is going on with
Bryce.”

“
Thank you.”

He places his
arms on my elbows and holds me away from him. “Do you think it
would be okay if I talked to him?”

“
Honestly, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. I mean,
you barely know Bryce, and he’s not exactly the nicest kid
lately.”

“
Look, I won’t talk to him if you don’t want me to, but maybe
it would help if he had a man to talk to.” I study his face, my
mind racing over all the possible outcomes of this little talk. He
holds his hands out in surrender. “I promise, I won’t push him.
I’ll just test the waters.”

“
Fine,” I relent, deciding that it’s worth a shot.

I follow Jase
down the hall to Bryce’s room. He knocks and waits for Bryce to
answer, giving me a wink just before he steps inside. He knows I’m
going to listen. From my place in the hall, I can’t see them, but I
can hear them clearly.

“
Hey, B. Your mom said you had a rough day.”

“
So?”

“
So, I came to see if you wanted to talk.”

“
Why would I want to talk to you?”

“
Because I’m a good listener and because I’d like to help you
make things better.” I have to give him credit. Jase is already
displaying much more patience than me at this point.

“
What do you care? You’re not my dad.”

Jase
laughs. “Yeah, I’m definitely not. Listen, about your
fight
—
”

“
That kid’s an asshole. He was making these annoying sounds,
and I told him to shut up, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“
So you made him shut up.” Silence fills the air. “If that’s
the case, B, I hate to say it, but it sounds like you’re the
asshole.”

“
What?”

“
You bullied that kid because he wasn’t doing what you wanted
him to do. That’s the definition of an asshole.”

“
My dad called me a pussy,” he mumbles, so low I can barely
hear him. “I wanted to prove that I wasn’t.” My heart clenches. Is
Paul still talking to my kid like this?

“
So you were trying to be a badass?” I wait for Bryce’s
answer, but don’t hear anything before Jase continues. “Well, I’m
gonna let you in on a little secret, okay? You don’t have to be an
asshole to be a badass. You just have to be someone who believes in
himself, and not the bullshit that other people put in your
head.”

“
Do you really think I’m an asshole, Jase?”

Jase sighs.
“No, kid, I don’t. I just think you need to find your inner
badass.”

Bryce mumbles
something I can’t hear, but I do hear Jase moving towards the door.
“I’m gonna go help your mom with supper. You think about that,
yeah?”

“
Yeah. Thanks, Jase.”

“
Anytime, little man. I’m always around.”

When Jase
steps into the hall, I watch as he approaches. His seems unsure,
probably because he knows I don’t approve of his language choices.
It’s bad enough to hear the words that come out of Bryce’s mouth
these days.

When he gets
close enough, I whisper, “Thank you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Jase

“C
an I see the
inside?” Bryce asks, climbing down from the back of my bike. It had
taken a lot of convincing from both me and Bryce to get Ellen to
allow this little excursion, but after more than a week of Bryce
begging, she’d finally agreed.

“
Sure can.” I walk up to the door and unlock it, swinging it
wide open so Bryce can go running in.

The second he
gets inside, he stops, curling his lip in disgust. “What a
dump.”

“
Hey, B?”

Bryce wanders
around, looking the place over. “Yeah?”

“
You need to learn to think it, not say it.”

His cheeks
flush and he grins. “Sorry, Jase, but it is.”

“
It’s not a dump. It just needs a bit of a facelift. You
watch, this place is gonna be the coolest garage around, and you
can help.”

“
Really?”

I laugh at the
eagerness I hear in his voice. “Yes sir. I’ve got a paint roller
with your name all over it.”

Bryce rolls
his eyes. “Great.”

My phone
chimes with a text, and I pull my phone out to see that it’s from
Ellen.

Ellen: My kid
driving you crazy yet?

I look up and
watch as Bryce peers into the cavernous garage beyond the door.
“Cool,” he whispers and steps inside. I smile to myself and text
her back.

Me: We’re
cool, woman. Stop worrying.

Things have
been good between the three of us since Bryce’s little incident at
school last week. I’d been over just about every night, visiting
with Ellen and hanging out with Bryce. In that time, I’d gotten to
know him a little better, and he’s a cool kid. He’s got a mouth on
him, but in a way, that’s kind of my favorite thing about him. It
reminds me of me at that age. He just needs to learn when it’s not
okay to be mouthy, particularly when he’s talking to his
mother.

I know that
Ellen is starting to get nervous because tomorrow Paul will be
coming to pick up Bryce again for their weekend visit. After
finding out how he talks to her son, she’s not looking forward to
sending him back there, and I have to say I’m not either, but she
has a court order, and she insists on following it.

I stuff my
phone back into my pocket and step into the garage, flipping on the
lights by the door. “What do ya think?”

“
This is cool.”

“
Yeah?” I ask, unable to hide my grin.

“
Definitely! We could have an entire basketball game in here!
It’s huge.” He looks around the room. “What are you gonna call
it?”

“
I haven’t quite thought of that yet.”

“
What about something simple, like King’s Garage?”

“
Too simple.”

“
Kings of Korruption Custom Choppers?”

“
Too long.”

“
I know!” He grins wide. “Korrupted Custom
Choppers!”

I mull the
name over in my mind. Simple, but shows that it’s a club business.
“I like it. Not too boring, and still sounds cool.”

Bryce’s grin
widens and his chest puffs out just a little. “Awesome.”

“
We should head back before your mom has a heart attack,
picturing you lyin’ in a ditch somewhere.”

Bryce rolls
his eyes and lumbers towards the door, clearly not happy to be
leaving. I like the fact that he wants to be here. If he likes it,
I’ll bring him here as often as he wants. Maybe I can even pass
along some of the mechanical stuff my father taught me.

After locking
up, I place the helmet on Bryce’s head and go to climb on the bike.
“Jase?”

I take in
Bryce’s suddenly sullen form, his eyes on the pavement in front of
him, alarmed by the sudden shift in mood. “What’s up?”

“
I need to tell you something. I was gonna tell Mom, but I
know she’ll freak out, and well… you kinda calm her down when she
starts to freak, so I thought maybe I could tell you, and then you
could tell her, and—”

“
B, slow down. You can tell me anything. What is
it?”

Bryce bites
his lip and looks up at me from under his giant helmet, his eyes
full of uncertainty. “I don’t want to go with my dad tomorrow.”

I kneel down
in front of him, the pavement biting into my knee as I place my
hands on his shoulders. “Then you won’t go. Your mom doesn’t want
you to go either.”

Hope fills his
features. “Really?”

“
Really. She hates it. But I need to ask, why don’t you wanna
go with him all of a sudden?”

“
He’s just mean, and he was never mean before.”

My body
tenses. If that fucker’s laid a hand on this kid, I will rip him
apart. “Did he hurt you, B?”

He shakes his
head. “No, he never touched me. He mostly ignored me, and when he
did talk to me, he called me names and said bad stuff about Mom. I
just don’t want to go back there.”

Drawing in
slow and steady breaths, I do my best to hide my rage, but right
now, I want nothing more than to find that son of a bitch and make
him bleed. I stand from my place on the ground and squeeze Bryce’s
shoulder. “He won’t get that chance again, B. I promise you
that.”

Bryce nods,
and I can see his tiny body tremble. He tries so hard to be tough
all the time, but this kid has his own share of demons thanks to
that prick, and no matter what Ellen does, and me, if I’m lucky, we
won’t be able to take those away. I just hope we can teach him to
quiet them.

“
Let’s go home. Supper must be ready.”

“
One more thing,” he blurts.

Shit. I don’t
know if I can hear much more. I already want to murder the stupid
fuck. I don’t know how much more I can take.

“
I have a basketball game on Monday, and Mom can’t go. Do you
think you could come, and maybe watch me play?”

“
You kiddin’ me? You don’t even have to ask, kid. I’ll be
there.”

Bryce’s grin
makes the anger fade, just a little. He climbs on behind me and we
head for home. I spend the entire drive plotting out exactly how
this is gonna go down with Paul.